


Broken Locks and Dinosaur Drawings

by callalily_flower



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Gen, M/M, Masters Student!Yukhei, Professor!Johnny, bc i love them, did i do bare minimum research about dinosaurs for this? you bet i did, it's your local business major faking science and conference knowledge, kid!jaemin, mark yangyang and ten are all mentioned briefly and overall unimportant characters, na jaemin and wong yukhei are adhd, single dad!Yuta, the romance is very much lowkey and was gonna be the point but then i got soft for kid!jaemin, this idea grew legs and ran away from me, yeosang and seonghwa of ateez are brief cameos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:20:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24244912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callalily_flower/pseuds/callalily_flower
Summary: We’re staying in adjoining rooms at a hotel, which is fine, but it turns out the lock on my side is broken so your kid keeps coming in here to show me pictures of dinosaurs. You keep apologizing but honestly I like dinosaurs so this might work out after all.
Relationships: Mark Lee & Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas, Moon Taeil & Suh Youngho | Johnny, Nakamoto Yuta & Moon Taeil, Nakamoto Yuta & Suh Youngho | Johnny, Nakamoto Yuta/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas, Qian Kun & Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas
Comments: 6
Kudos: 86





	Broken Locks and Dinosaur Drawings

**Author's Note:**

> i'd say i'm back on my bullshit but if i was i would be posting the jjp ship for my ensemble au, which obviously is not happening, so i'm just back
> 
> this was gonna be short and sweet and then suddenly it was 6000 words

Yukhei collapsed face down onto the bed. He really appreciated the glowing reference from his professor and the confidence he had that Yukhei could present this research at the conference. But the short notice was not something he appreciated.

Sure the research is what he was planning on using for the base of his thesis and it was already done and compiled but hearing on Wednesday that he was presenting his research on Monday really works wonders on inspiring anxiety induced insomnia. His roommate Mark was concerned when Friday came around and instead of sleeping, he had rewatched all three seasons of Avatar the Last Airbender and was working through the third season of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood while he formatted and reformatted his poster. The only reason he stopped was so it could be sent to the printer to be ready for him at the end of the day.

The university flew him to the conference, in some mountain town that he didn’t know the name to, on Saturday. He had that night and the next day to prepare to present and he opened his bag to find the Red Bulls he knew he packed. In their place was a note in Mark’s handwriting.

_Kun-hyung told me to check your bag before you left and take away your Red Bull. He said you need to sleep and not worry about presenting your research. Sorry bro :(_

Curse Kun and his sixth sense for Yukhei’s destructive tendencies under stress. At least it was break and he didn’t have to worry about missing any classes and the university was covering his travel expenses. He considers checking his email but decides that’s a problem for tomorrow-Yukhei. Next he considers ordering food but one look at the room service prices discourage that. Just because the university is reimbursing him, doesn’t mean he can spend money he doesn’t have.

He finally decides to just shower and maybe he’ll watch another episode of Brotherhood before he crashes. It _has_ been nearly 72 hours since he slept and maybe Kun had a point but Yukhei would rather take an 8 am lecture than ever admit that to him.

He digs through his bag, searching for the toiletries he knows Kun slipped Mark to put in the bag when he took away Yukhei’s Red Bull. He scrolls on his phone to find a song to listen to while he showers but he stops short seeing a child that barely comes up to hip, looking about 6 years old.

Yukhei blinks and rubs at his eyes. Maybe it had been longer than he thought if he was hallucinating children.

“Jaemin!” a worried voice cuts through the fog, “Jaemin where are you?!”

Shaking his head, Yukhei notices the door that connects his room to the neighboring room is wide open. Looking back to the kid, Yukhei crouches down, “Are you Jaemin?”

The kid nods, “Do you wanna see a picture I drew?” he asks.

Before Yukhei can answer, a head peers into the room from around the doorframe of the other room, “Jaemin!” the man rushes in pulling the kid away, eyeing Yukhei warily. “You can’t just come in here. It’s not our room.”

“But it wasn’t even locked Dad,” Jaemin whines. “I just wanted to show him my picture.”

Jaemin’s dad gives Yukhei a once over, pausing on the eye bags that must extend halfway down his face. “I don’t think he wants to see your picture, honey. Come on, let’s go unpack and maybe we can go to the pool tonight.”

Jaemin pouts, “How do you know he doesn’t wanna see it?”

“I-“

“You didn’t even ask him!” Jaemin seems on the edge of a tantrum. Yukhei suddenly remembers the time he and Kunhang had to babysit his friend’s nieces and nephews for all three of Kunhang’s sisters. The number of tantrums that were thrown were enough to discourage both of them from ever having kids.

“Why don’t you show me and then you can go back with your dad?” Yukhei offers.

“See!” Jaemin emphasizes, “He does want to see it!”

“Okay,” his father sighs before muttering, “then show him and stop rubbing it in.”

Jaemin starts waving the picture around for Yukhei to see. Trying to avoid being smacked in the face, Yukhei wobbles before falling back on his ass.

“Jaemin,” his father scolds, “he can’t see it if you’re waving it around.”

“Sorry,” Jaemin mutters quietly before quickly shifting back into excitement of telling someone about his picture, “So this is a T. Rex but everyone knows that one. This one is a Triceratops and this is a Brachiosaurus and this is a Stegosaurus.” Jaemin pauses, taking a breath, “But this one is my favorite. It’s a Utahraptor.” Jaemin looks up at Yukhei, eyes glittering with joy at being able to tell someone about his drawing.

“That’s a pretty cool drawing,” Yukhei nods. “Do you wanna see something even cooler?” he looks up to the boy’s dad, question in his eyes. At a small nod, he looks back to Jaemin who begins nodding vigorously.

Climbing to his feet, Yukhei walks over to the desk where he had tossed his backpack and poster. He reaches into the side pocket to pull out his keys before kneeling down next to Jaemin, “I have this keychain that my friend got for me. Do you know what kind of dinosaur it is?”

Jaemin frowns, “It kinda looks like the Utahraptor.”

Yukhei nods, “But you can tell it’s not, right?” Jaemin nods. “This one is called an Eoraptor and it’s one of the smallest raptors we know of.”

Jaemin’s eyes go bright, “That’s so cool! Can you tell me about more dinosaurs?”

“Jaemin,” his dad warns, “we agreed you could show your picture and then we would leave.”

Yukhei checks his watch for the time, “Whoa!” he says dramatically, “It’s already 8 pm. Shouldn’t it be your bedtime by now?”

“No!” Jaemin says, “I’m not a baby!”

“I don’t know,” Yukhei doesn’t even have to fake the yawn for his dramatics, “I think it’s past _my_ bedtime.”

“Come on, Jaemin,” his dad lifts the boy onto his hip, “Let’s leave so the nice man can get some rest.”

Looking over his dad’s shoulder, Jaemin pouts at Yukhei, “Can you tell me about dinosaurs tomorrow?”

“I don’t know,” Yukhei looks towards the boy’s father who subtly shakes his head, “that’s up to your dad. I bet you have more fun things planned than listening to me talk about dinosaurs.”

“Yeah, Jaemin,” his dad interrupts, “remember, we’re here on vacation and we’re gonna go skiing tomorrow.”

Jaemin pouts but doesn’t say anything else. Yukhei smiles and waves to Jaemin as they leave for their own room. The door on their side closes and Yukhei hears the lock slide into place before he closes the door on his own side, sliding his own lock into place.

Yukhei finally gets to shower and promptly passes out where he lands on the bed, diagonal and facedown.

The next morning he wakes up and sleepily fumbles among the blankets to find his phone. Shifting one leg to reach farther down the bed, he hears the telltale thump of his phone falling onto carpet. Yukhei groans, sitting up only to lay back down so he can reach his phone on the floor. Checking the time, 10:37, Yukhei absentmindedly scrolls through his emails, looking for the ones about the conference. Finding the itinerary only a few from the top, he makes a list of all that he has to do.

“Okay,” he mutters as he reads, “gotta find the event rooms, gotta take my poster down there, gotta check in with whoever is running this event, what’s their face, Dr. Moon. Man, I think Dr. Suh is an old friend and that’s why I was allowed to join last minute. Fuck that. Okay, Xuxi, back on track.” He shakes his head, getting refocused on the email, “I have to be in the event space presenting from 10-2 tomorrow but the poster can stay for the whole day. Fuck I hope Kun-gē reminded Mark to check for dress shoes.”

“Who are you talking to?”

The ensuing combination of the shriek he lets out and falling out of bed is one of the most embarrassing things he’s ever done. The list is still topped by the weird snorting laughter he accidentally revealed in front of Jungwoo when he still had a crush on him. This was before Jungwoo and Mark had talked about the feelings they had been dancing around for apparently months and gotten together. He and Yukhei are still friends and Jungwoo still likes to make fun of Yukhei for the dumb laugh.

There’s a thump from the next room over that is louder than it should be when heard through the wall. Yukhei finally realizes that’s because the sound is coming through the open doorway between the rooms.

Yukhei groans from the impact with the ground and opens his eyes to see Jaemin peering at him, upside down. Fighting with the blankets he had somehow gotten tangled in, Yukhei scrambles to his feet and scoops Jaemin up, carrying him to the door.

Jaemin’s dad (who’s name Yukhei _still_ doesn’t know, which is a damn travesty with how attractive he is) meets him at the doorway.

“I believe you lost something,” Yukhei says while holding the boy out in front of him. Once his father takes him, Yukhei turns to his door to examine the lock. He knows he flipped the lock last night but everything about the doorframe and the bolt are in pristine condition. He flicks the lock and hears the slide and click he associates with a door being locked, but the actual locking mechanism remains in the door.

He looks up at the other man, eyes wide, before looking down and flicking the lock back and forth while nothing visibly happens. Glancing back up at the man, he sees his own expression mirrored.

“Hey, Jaemin,” his dad says, “why don’t you go brush your teeth?”

“But I wanna talk to the nice man about dinosaurs!”

“Jaemin.” His father’s tone leaves no room for argument, so the boy trudges off. Once he’s out of ear shot, his father leans on the doorframe, “Fuck,” he breathes out.

Yukhei sticks his hand out towards the man, “Hi, I’m Yukhei.”

The man grabs his hand to shake, “Yuta and you’ve met my menace of a son, Jaemin.”

Yukhei nods, hearing the fondness in Yuta’s voice when he talks about his son, “I’m gonna be completely honest and say that I absolutely do not mind talking to him about dinosaurs,” he starts. “Having him suddenly just _there_ is not all that great for my heart. I’m too young to die but if my heart is gonna give out I’d rather it happen due to caffeine overdose and not being scared by a 6-year-old.”

Yuta looks up, hopeful, “Really? He’s ADHD and that just happens to be the special interest he picked up. We’re still working on boundaries and you know, general conversation cues.”

“Fuck,” Yukhei mutters, “my special interest at 6 was learning every pet in my apartment building but dinosaurs are way cooler.”

“Are you…?”

“Yeah,” Yukhei answers before Yuta can finish the question, “I was diagnosed when I was 5 and I’ve cycled through hyper fixations over the last 20 years. Here,” he holds out his phone, “put in your number and I can text you a list of things that helped me when I was younger.”

Yukhei hears a faint ringtone as Yuta calls his own phone. “I really do appreciate this. He was just diagnosed and it’s just me so I really feel out of my depth.”

“Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure that’s a common feeling for parents of ADHD kids.”

Yuta gives him a half smile, “Thanks. Now I have to go make sure my son isn’t systematically soaking every towel in the bathroom before we go to meet some friends.”

“Yeah, go save the towels. And if you need any, it’s only me over here so just knock.”

Yuta waves before shutting the door on his side. Yukhei shuts his own, even though it won’t lock.

He gets ready and makes his way down to the front desk with his poster board, asking directions to the conference center portion of the hotel.

Once there he finds the conference director, Dr. Moon, he was right, fairly quickly.

Dr. Moon skims down the list of presenters, “Ah, you’re Johnny’s kid,” Yukhei makes a face, not sure he’s ever heard that name and it’s most definitely not his dad. Dr. Moon looks up to see Yukhei’s confusion, “Youngho?” he tries. With still no response, he sighs, “Dr. Suh?”

“Oh, yeah!” Yukhei nods.

“I can’t believe he never told you to just call him Johnny,” Dr. Moon mutters to himself, “Have you seen him around?”

Yukhei stares blankly at Dr. Moon. “Alright, I’ll take that as a no.”

“Wait, he’s supposed to be here too?”

Dr. Moon frowns in confusion, “Yeah, did you think he was just sending a student to a conference across the country on their own?” Yukhei nods. “Okay, well he wasn’t. Another one of our college friends came to the area as well so we could catch up this week.”

“Anyway,” Dr. Moon looks back at his clipboard, “you have a half hour session at 9 tomorrow morning to present your research and then it will be set up here for the rest of the week.”

“Wait, it’s a session?”

Dr. Moon squints at Yukhei, “Did Johnny not tell you what would happen at this conference?”

“I didn’t even submit my research to be in the conference. I think Dr. Suh did it for me because he liked my research,” Yukhei explains. “He told me on Wednesday I would be presenting on Monday and that’s all I got.”

“Hey, Taeil,” a familiar voice calls out from behind Yukhei.

Dr. Moon (Taeil, he guesses) is rubbing at his temples, “Johnny, just because you have a small department with graduate assistants, doesn’t mean you can just send in their research and give less than a weeks’ notice for presenting.”

Dr. Suh winces, “But Yukhei would never submit his own research. And it’s good research!”

“Respectfully,” Yukhei interrupts, “but Dr. Suh I have to agree with Dr. Moon.”

“Kid,” Dr. Suh sighs, “I’ve told you to call me Johnny in every research meeting we’ve had. I won’t do it again, but I will tell you about conferences I think you should submit your research to.”

Dr. Moon nods, “Better. As I was saying, you have a half hour session for presenting. Your poster has an electronic copy?” Yukhei nods, “Good. That will be displayed and you’ll present it. Small group, less than 20 people, and they’ll probably have some questions about it. After that you’re free to go to whatever sessions you want, you should come spend some time by the physical copy throughout the week but you don’t have to. It has your email on it?” Yukhei nods again. “Perfect. If people have any questions about your research and you aren’t there, they can email you about it.”

“Dr. Suh,” Yukhei asks, “why didn’t you make Kun-gē or Yeosang do this?”

He sighs, “Because Kun signs up for conferences on his own and Yeosang’s research isn’t as fleshed out as yours.”

Dr. Moon takes the poster from Yukhei, “This will be set up in that area,” he points to the vague area of the large room that he’s going to get the poster set up, “Make sure you can access the electronic copy when you go to present. You’re the first of the day in that room so if you want to get set up early you can.” Dr. Moon gives him directions to get to the room from their current location then wishes him an enjoyable conference before walking off to talk to another student.

“I’ll be in there tomorrow,” Dr. Suh assures him. “You’ll do great, you know a lot about this and you can answer any questions. If you don’t have an answer, the best response is ‘I haven’t come across that in my research yet.’” He claps Yukhei on the shoulder, “Enjoy the rest of the day and I’ll see you in the morning.” At that his professor walks off after Dr. Moon.

Yukhei returns to his room and orders the delivery food he thought about last night. He vegs out for the afternoon until he is startled by a knock on the joining door. Getting up he opens the door, forgetting about his lack of shirt after he spilled sauce from his lunch on it.

Jaemin smiles up at him, “Hi! Can you tell me about dinosaurs?”

Yukhei looks farther into the joined room, not seeing Yuta anywhere, “Where’s your dad at?”

Yuta steps out of the bathroom, “Jaemin, didn’t I tell you to wait?”

“But I knocked this time, Dad!”

“I guess it’s better than nothing,” Yuta mutters to himself. “Yukhei, would you like to come over and talk to Jaemin about dinosaurs?”

Yukhei smiles, grabbing his phone in case Dr. Suh needs to contact him before going into the other room. “What kind of dinosaurs do you want to hear about?”

“What’s the frill necked one from Jurassic Park?”

Yukhei stretches his memory, trying to remember which one that was, “Dilophosaurus?”

Jaemin nods enthusiastically, “Yeah!”

So Yukhei starts telling Jaemin about Dilophosaurus and when they lived and where they lived. He mentions that the movie wasn’t entirely accurate.

“What?!” Jaemin seems especially offended by this.

“They wanted to make sure it wasn’t confused with the Velociraptors so they made it smaller. It should be about 6 meters long and closer to the same height as a human.” Jaemin’s whole world seems to be turned upside down. “The frill also isn’t completely accurate. The skeletons we’ve found have two plate shaped crests,” Yukhei brings his hands up to where his jaw meets his neck, “like here so it probably looked similar but we don’t know what the purpose of them was.”

Jaemin looks so disappointed, “So Jurassic Park is wrong?”

Yuta is pleading silently, likely worried what Jaemin will do if he finds out his favorite movie is wrong. Yukhei approaches the subject carefully, “Well, it is nearly 30 years old so we’ve made a lot more discoveries since it was first made. When it was released it had some of the most accurate depictions of dinosaurs. That movie is why we know birds are distantly related to them.”

Jaemin seems to think this over, “Okay. They can’t have known what was going to be discovered.”

Yukhei talks a little more about the Dilophosaurus before Jaemin is yawning.

Yuta stands up, “Alright, little monster, say thank you to Yukhei-ahjussi and then it’s time for bed.”

Jaemin yawns once more time, “Thank you, Yukhei-samchon.”

Yuta opens his mouth but Yukhei waves him off, “You’re very welcome, Jaemin. Have a good night!” He waves as he pulls their door closed behind him and closes his door as well.

He double checks that he can access the electronic copy of the poster from his email and saves it to a flash drive as well, just in case. Stretching, Yukhei realizes he spent several hours in his neighbor’s room shirtless. He groans as he faceplants into the bed.

The next morning, Yukhei calls Kun in a panic, not even waiting for him to start talking, “Kun I can’t do this. I don’t know what Dr. Suh was thinking. My research is terrible and shouldn’t have even been accepted to this conference.”

“Are you done?”

Yukhei frowns, looking at the caller ID and seeing Kun’s name, “Ten-gē?”

“Yeah,” Kun’s boyfriend, Ten groans, “so are you done?”

“Where’s Kun-gē?”

“Busy.”

Yukhei pauses, “You are disgusting. It is 8 in the morning.”

“Yeah, where you are. It’s actually 10 in the morning here.”

“You are disgusting and I’m no longer worried because I’m too busy being disgusted.”

Before Ten can respond Yukhei has hung up the phone. He groans, then smacks his cheeks, “You can do this Yukhei. Dr. Suh wouldn’t submit bad research and Dr. Moon wouldn’t select bad research to be presented.”

His pep talk gets him up and dressed. As he is walking the room he is presenting in, he is hit with another wave of inadequacy. This time he calls Yeosang.

“Hello?” Yeosang grumbles from the other end.

“Hey, Yeosang. I need you to hype me to present my research. Dr. Suh didn’t tell me it was a session presentation and I’m panicking again.”

“Present your research?”

“I’m at a conference that Dr. Suh submitted my research to. Did you not know?”

“I didn't, but you’re gonna do great,” there’s grumbling from the other end and Yeosang pulls the phone away to say something before he’s back. “Johnny-hyung wouldn’t submit your research if it was shitty and even if it was, you wouldn’t be asked to present if it was shitty.”

“You’re sure?” Yukhei asks, voice small.

“I’m positive, Yukhei,” Yeosang says. “Now I have a question. Why didn’t you call Kun-hyung?”

“I did but Ten answered,” Yukhei shudders.

“Gross.”

“Yeah I was too disgusted to be worried then but now I’m walking down to the room and suddenly I realized I’m dumb and I don’t know any words.”

“Yukhei,” Yeosang’s tone sounds like a parent scolding their child, leaving no room for disagreement, “you are brilliant and the fact that you’re in the program means you’re smart. Johnny-hyung really does like your research and he’s told me himself on several occasions.”

“Thanks, Yeosang.” Yukhei feels better. “I already have a story for when semester starts back up.”

“You better not forget to tell me,” Yeosang says.

“I won’t. Hi, Seonghwa-hyung!” Yukhei raises his voice so Yeosang’s boyfriend can hear him while Yeosang has the phone.

“Okay I’m hanging up, now that you’re just yelling at me,” Yeosang grumbles, “You’re gonna kill it, Yukhei.”

He hangs up and checks the time, seeing that he still has 10 minutes. He leans against the wall.

He hears someone lean on the wall next to him. Cracking one eye open, Yukhei sees his professor. “You successfully hyped up after talking to Yeosang?”

Yukhei shrugs, “I think so.”

“Good,” Dr. Suh nods, “you’re really smart Yukhei and your research is brilliant. I asked a favor of Taeil to add you and your research but once he read it he said it wasn’t even a favor anymore, he liked it so much.”

“You’re not just saying that to stroke my ego are you?” Yukhei asks warily.

“Yukhei, your ego is the smallest ego I’ve ever seen on any graduate student.”

“Smaller than Kun-gē’s?”

“PhD candidates have bigger egos because of the fact they’re PhD candidates,” Dr. Suh says. “Once you’re a PhD candidate, you and Kun will have the same sized egos.”

Yukhei smiles, “Alright, Dr. Suh, I can do this. I’m still upset and you can ask my roommate how much I slept the end of last week but I’m getting over it.”

Dr. Suh rolls his eyes, “Please just call me Johnny. Dr. Suh makes me feel so old. I’m not much older than Kun.” He throws an arm over Yukhei’s shoulder, “Come on let’s get you set up so you can crush it.”

Johnny (Yukhei still didn’t like it but if Yeosang calls him Johnny, he guesses he can too) was right and Yukhei crushes it. He’s still floating on cloud nine when Johnny throws an arm over his shoulder.

“I told you.”

Yukhei grins up at his professor, “Yeah, you did.”

Johnny grins back and ruffles Yukhei’s hair, “Go to some sessions today, stand by your poster later in the week. I’m gonna go find Taeil before he loses all his hair from stress.”

Yukhei does exactly that. He receives some emails concerning his research throughout the week and he takes a few hours to stand by his poster during the latter part of the week. He looks at other posters and chats with those students. By the time the week is up, he isn’t nearly as upset with his professor as he was a week ago.

Jaemin picks a different dinosaur each night and Yukhei tells him all about the dinosaur of the day. Friday night, before Yukhei returns to his room, Yuta stops him, “We’re leaving tomorrow, so tonight was the last night.”

Yukhei perks up, “Oh, I was here for a conference. Today was the last day so I’m also leaving tomorrow.”

Yuta smirks, “I noticed your poster the first night so I figured. Everything go well?”

Yukhei nods, “I presented on Monday so my stress was gone pretty quickly.”

“That’s good,” Yuta nods. “Thanks for putting up with my little monster all week.” They both look to where Jaemin is passed out spread eagle on the bed.

“He was so curious about everything so it was really not a problem. If you have any questions or he just wants to hear about dinosaurs again, you have my number.” Yukhei tries not to think of other reasons they would make use of each other’s number. He bids Yuta goodbye, knowing his flight is early the next morning.

At the front desk the next morning, Yukhei remembers something, “Oh, the door to the adjoining room in my room had a broken lock.”

The desk worker thanks him and lets him know that maintenance will address it.

Yukhei nods and he’s on his way to the airport.

The first night back, Yukhei lays on the floor of Mark’s room and rants about the hot dad and cute son who had the hotel room adjoined to his. Mark is a good friend who lets Yukhei get through the whole half hour long story.

The next day, Kun only gives Yukhei five minutes before he attempts to refocus Yukhei on research. “You can’t just half-ass this thesis.”

“I’m not half-assing it,” Yukhei complains, face down on the table in protest for cutting off the story. “I already did the research _and_ I presented it. I don’t get why that isn’t good enough.”

Their paleontology department is relatively small but with Dr. Suh at the head, it’s reputable. Dr. Moon is widely published and, as he learned at the conference, close friends with Dr. Suh, who is also widely published just not in Yukhei’s focus. Kun is currently the only PhD student while Yukhei and his friend Yeosang are the two masters students.

“Yeah, you already presented it. Now you have to supplement that.”

Yukhei groans. “Okay but can’t that wait until spring semester starts?”

“Research waits for no one.”

“I’m calling Ten-gē. This is cruel and unusual punishment.”

“No you’re not,” Kun says as he trucks along in his own research, “I told him not to answer any calls or texts from you today.”

Yukhei remains face down in protest, not saying anything to Kun. After nearly five minutes of silence Kun finally sighs, “If I let you tell the story will you start researching when you’re done?” Yukhei is up in a flash, nodding vigorously. “Fine, tell your story.”

Yukhei powers through his story, afraid if he pauses for a breath then Kun will cut him off. At the end he catches his breath, grinning at Kun.

“Did you ever actually send the list of things that helped you?” Kun asks.

Yukhei blinks, “Fuck.”

Kun chuckles, “Well, if he doubted you before, I’m sure he believes you now.”

Yukhei isn’t listening, too busy typing an apology and the list he meant to send at the beginning of the week.

Once the text is sent, Kun taps on Yukhei’s laptop, “Okay you promised. Now research.”

After a few minutes of research he remembers something, “Kun-gē?” Kun hums to let Yukhei know he’s listening, “Did you know Dr. Suh and Dr. Moon are old college friends?”

Kun looks up from his laptop, “Yeah. Them and Dr. Nakamoto.”

Yukhei frowns, “Dr. Nakamoto?”

“Yeah, he’s in the geology field. He’s really widely published you’ve probably read some of his research. Him and Dr. Moon and Johnny were all really good friends in college and they’ve even co-authored papers together.”

“Huh?” Yukhei muses before returning to his research.

It’s been a few weeks since the conference, with the semester starting in a few days but Kun has made him do so much research, he needs to have a meeting with Johnny about his research before he gets too far off track. The last time he went too long between meetings, he found himself texting Yangyang at 3 in the morning for movement generators because he wanted to see if dragons are possible. Yangyang in turn texted Kun to make Yukhei set up a meeting with Johnny.

So Yukhei and Johnny, who hasn’t stopped emphasizing since the conference that Yukhei can call him that and speak more comfortably with him, are in an advising meeting, which really just means Yukhei can rant about everything he’s learned and Johnny asks how it’s relevant or what the implications are. If Yukhei knows he answers and makes a note to include that connection and if he doesn’t know then he writes down the question to look into further.

He’s mid-rant about the phonology of naming dinosaurs when he is interrupted by a knock on the office door. Johnny _knows_ this isn’t really relevant but sometimes Yukhei’s irrelevant rants have some standing that he wants to encourage him to look into later.

Yeosang sticks his head in, “Hyung, there’s someone here looking for you. Says he’s an old friend?”

Yukhei looks down at his notes, “I’ve got plenty of work to do with what you’ve already told me.”

Johnny nods, “Bring them in, Yeosang,” he turns back to Yukhei as Yeosang goes to get the visitor, “I’d normally ask how the phonology is relevant, but we both know it really isn’t to your specific area of study,” Yukhei fiddles with the zipper of his bag, embarrassed, “but, it is interesting and there could be something there. Maybe something for a scholarly article. I’d be willing to put my name on it if you want to write it.”

Yukhei looks up in surprise, “Really?”

Johnny nods before looking back to the door as they hear Yeosang returning with the visitor.

The sound of small feet smacking the floor is heard as a voice splutters “Come back here you menace.” A giggle echoes down the empty hallway while the footsteps don’t change.

A kid runs into the office, out of breath and looking over his shoulder. Yukhei’s eyebrows furrow when he recognizes the kid.

The kid looks ahead of him, intent upon running to Johnny, but changes course upon seeing Yukhei, screaming, “Yukhei-samchon!”

Jaemin barrels into Yukhei’s legs just as Yuta rounds the corner. Johnny’s face is one of pure betrayal while Yuta and Yukhei are staring at each other in shock.

Jaemin is the first one to break the silence, “Can I show you my new drawing?”

Yeosang peers in from the hallway, “Yukhei?”

“Um, go on without me, I’ll text you later,” he waves his friend off.

“Alright,” he waves to Johnny, “See you, Johnny-hyung!”

Johnny waves back, still stunned.

Yuta pulls Jaemin back from where he is wrapped around Yukhei’s thighs, “Jaemin, I’ve told you, you can’t barrel into people like that. Not everyone has good balance.”

Johnny finally recovers, “I have a lot of questions for you,” Yukhei isn’t sure which person he’s talking to but Johnny continues before he can figure it out, “but don’t you have an interview to get to, Yuta?”

Yukhei notices the suit that Yuta is wearing and all coherent thoughts are gone seeing the man in fitted clothes rather than the loose sweatshirts he saw the week of the conference.

Yuta looks at the time before swearing. He kisses the top of Jaemin’s head before handing him to Yukhei and dashes out the door, “Thanks for doing this, Johnny,” thrown over his shoulder.

Yukhei is frozen, suddenly holding a 6-year-old. When Jaemin wiggles, Yukhei starts and sets him down on the floor. The boy shrugs his backpack off his back and digs through it looking for something.

Johnny and Yukhei exchange a look that Yukhei knows will mean that they will talk about whatever is going on. Jaemin finds whatever he was looking for and starts tugging on Yukhei’s pant leg, “Can you put me in the chair, please? Dad says I can’t climb up by myself.”

Yukhei lifts the boy into the chair before looking around awkwardly, wondering if he could get away with leaving the office now.

“Yukhei-samchon,” Jaemin whines, “I wanna show you and Johnny-samchon my picture!”

Well that answers that question. Yukhei sits down in the other chair across the desk from Johnny while Jaemin describes his picture and the different dinosaurs.

“Hey, Jaemin,” Johnny says when the boy pauses for a breath, “where did you and your dad meet Yukhei?”

“When we were on vacation! He told me about dinosaurs every night!”

“Was he the neighbor that you kept barging in on?” Johnny smirks, obviously having heard the stories from the conference.

Jaemin rolls his eyes, “The door wasn’t even locked. If I wasn’t supposed to go in there, then it would have been locked.”

Yukhei shrugs, “I mean I can’t argue with that logic.”

Johnny nods, “I can’t believe Yuta didn’t tell me your name. He raved about the room neighbor who talked to Jaemin about dinosaurs. Taeil and I weren’t surprised given how big the conference was.”

Jaemin has decided that the conversation is boring and has begun drawing something new on the back of his paper.

“I mean how many paleontology students with ADHD and an encyclopedic knowledge of dinosaurs do you think there are?” Yukhei laughs.

“Definitely more than you think,” Johnny says. “It’s more common than you think.”

Yukhei shrugs, “Why is Yuta-hyung here then?”

“He was offered a professorship in the geology department.” Johnny says, watching Jaemin draw, “He and I have been close since our PhD programs and we always wanted to work at the same university.”

“If I flirt with him,” Yukhei starts.

“Please don’t,” Johnny says, “because then I have to see him flirt back and I don’t want to see that. I saw enough of his terrible flirting in college.”

“But you would probably get to spend more time with Jaemin,“ Yukhei points out. The boy perks up slightly but goes right back to his drawing.

“That’s only if he responds positively to your flirting,” Johnny adds.

“Stop being pessimistic. It’s not helping me look on the bright side.”

“Since when do you look on the bright side? I remember you calling two separate people to hype you up for presenting your research and you still needed validation from me.”

Yukhei rolls his eyes, “Okay having 5 days to prep for presenting research or having several weeks to think about flirting with someone?” he holds his hands like a scale, “Not really the same thing hyung.”

Yuta’s voice comes from the doorway, “You only had 5 days of prep before presenting?”

Yukhei and Johnny both look up. “Yeah,” Yukhei answers. “Johnny-hyung submitted my research for me and didn’t tell me until the Wednesday before that I was presenting.”

“Yukhei you really have to stop exposing me to my college friends.” Johnny mutters, face in his hands.

When Yukhei looks back at Yuta, he understands why. Yuta’s face is stormy.

“Suh Youngho!”

“Please don’t use my Korean name,” Johnny groans.

“No! You submitted his research for him and only told him 5 days in advance that he was presenting! You don’t get to request which name I yell at you with!”

“He wouldn’t have submitted his own research and it was really good research,” Johnny tries to defend, “I asked Taeil as a favor but when he read it, he said it wasn’t a favor anymore. It was so good, Taeil was impressed!”

Yuta pauses before continuing, “That doesn’t mean you submit his research for him! You encourage him to submit it himself!” He looks around the office, “God all you have in here is textbooks,” Yuta turns to look at Yukhei, “Do you have a newspaper? Or any amount of papers you don’t care about?”

“I have a notebook?”

“Perfect. That’s durable and won’t fall apart.”

Yukhei hands Yuta his notebook, watching him roll it up so the spiral is hidden, and Yuta starts smacking Johnny with it, “This is what you get for being dumb.”

By the time Yuta deems Johnny punished, Jaemin has climbed down from his seat and tugged at Yukhei’s pants to show him another picture. Yukhei has pulled out one of the textbooks, showing Jaemin all the renderings of different dinosaurs.

“Here you are, Yukhei,” Yuta says as he hands the notebook back, “You’ve already won Jaemin’s heart, so all you have to do is win mine, if you’re interested.”

Johnny groans, “Please get out of my office before you start flirting.”

Yukhei stands, shoving his notebook in his backpack and crosses outside the doorframe, turning back to where Yuta is standing, “Winning your heart will take more effort and be all the more rewarding.”

Johnny groans, dropping his head to his desk, as Yuta laughs.

* * *

**yuck-hey**

yo yangyang

**yangx2**

ge it is 3 am

**yuck-hey**

yeah and i have a question

do you know where i can download a motion generation program?

**yangx2**

doesn’t your department have one?

like the best money can buy because they wanted to attract johnny here, even though he was already committed but he really wanted the program

**yuck-hey**

yeah but those are in the lab and it’s not really open right now

**yangx2**

and you need one right now?

**yuck-hey**

yeah so do you know or not?

**yangx2**

yeah i know

why do you need it?

**yuck-hey**

i’m looking at theropods and wanted to see if i could make a dragon

**yangx2**

aren’t you supposed to be doing research?

**yuck-hey**

this is research!

**yangx2**

no it’s not i’m telling kun-ge

**yuck-hey**

nooooooo

**yangx2**

but now i’m curious so here

[download link]

i’m still telling kun-ge

**Author's Note:**

> quarantine brain said yucas and here i am, gonna populate this ship tag if it's the last thing i do because we need more yucas and i accidentally wrote this in less than 24 hours with minimal editing
> 
> i'd promise that the jjp fic is coming next but i'd make myself into a liar when i inevitably post another yucas and/or other nct ship fic so it's coming soon


End file.
